nintex workflows 2007 evaluation
DESCRIPTION
The presentation contains my notes about evaluation of WorkFlows 2007 product by Nintex. This product extends SharePoint workflows and is used industrywide for workflows design and development.TRANSCRIPT
Introduction Product Administration Preferences and Security Settings Workflow Designer Interaction with SharePoint Common Workflow Actions Extending NW 2007 Additional Resources
Agenda
A custom workflow solution built on top of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 developed by Nintex.
What is NW2007?
Enterprise Edition – It has all features of the product including features for integration with external LOB systems, SP search, SP Records center, Active Directory and SP User Profile integration etc.
Standard Edition – Doesn’t have the additional features mentioned above in Enterprise edition.
Workgroup Edition – It has same features as in Standard edition but is available for limited number of sites.
Feature-wise comparison of different editions of NW 2007
Variants
Easy Drag and Drop web based interface for workflow development and management.
No code Workflow Development
Dedicated section in SharePoint Central administration application for Product Administration.
Product Administration
Database settings – Configuration and Content Database
Allowed Activities – Configuring the actions workflows can perform on the farm
Message Templates – Configuring the templates to be used for approval emails etc.
Licensing settings – Configuring license to use.
Global settings – Common for all sites in all farms
Product Administration
Web Application Level – If this option is disabled, site collections / sites will not have any NW 2007 features
Site Collection Level – Activated / De-activated using site collection SharePoint Features
Site Level – Activated / De-activated using site level SharePoint Features
Activation Levels
Provision of sending workflow alerts on Emails, Communicator and SMS in business and off-hours
Preferences
Security settings for permission groups provided by default with product e.g. Lazy Approvers, Workflow designers etc.
Security Settings
Pinned Action Palette with a Design Canvas for No code designing of workflows.
Workflow Designer Features
Actions menu for Creating, Saving, Publishing, Exporting/Importing Workflows
Settings menu to Provide Workflow Startup data / options and set Workflow variables.
Workflow Designer Features
Provision of collecting data from users at the start of a workflow and storing it in Workflow variables.
Workflow Designer (Start Data)
Configuring whether the Workflow will be started manually or automatically when a SharePoint item is created or modified.
Workflow Designer (Start Options)
Use of Workflow variables for storing combination of different values already existing in the system to be used later on.
Workflow Designer (Workflow Variables)
Complete workflows can be saved as templates to be re-used later on.
Most frequently used combination of workflow actions can be saved as snippets.
Workflow Designer (Templates, Snippets and Publishing)
Workflows like any other SharePoint artifact in Publishing site needs to be published to be used.
Multiple versions of same workflow can be published.
Workflow Designer (Publishing)
Available for “Request Approval” and “Request Action” Workflow actions with E-mail delivery method.
Needs to be explicitly enabled.
Workflow Interaction with SharePoint (Lazy Approval)
Users can approve a request or provide data in a workflow by replying to an E-mail with a pre-configured word recognizable by system.
Configurable informative footer text appended to mail requesting for Lazy Approval.
Administrator can configure a list of acceptable and recognizable terms.
Workflow Interaction with SharePoint (Lazy Approval)
Any approval or review task can be configured to be delegated.
Users can configure personal task delegation preferences.
Workflow Interaction with SharePoint (Task Delegation)
A time interval can be specified during which tasks requiring approval / review by a user will be delegated to other configured users.
Scope of delegation can be restricted to specific site or entire farm.
Workflow Interaction with SharePoint (Task Delegation)
A library or list item can be associated with a scheduled workflow.
Workflows can be scheduled to start at a specific date and end after a specific number of occurrences or on a specific date.
Infinitely executing workflows can also be configured.
History and status of workflow associated with a list / library can be accessed on a dedicated screen.
Workflow Interaction with SharePoint (Scheduling & History)
Commonly used web parts with Nintex Workflows are -
My Workflow task web part Workflows I’ve Started web part Graph Viewer web part – for graphical
display of workflow reports (Only available in NW 2007 enterprise edition)
Report Viewer web part – for displaying workflow reports.
Workflow Interaction with SharePoint (Web parts)
Integration with LOB systems, Web Services, XML; managing SP Libraries, Lists, Sites, User Interaction; logical constructs and mathematical operations.
Common Workflow Actions
Nintex provides SDK for extending NW 2007. Commonly customized features are –
InfoPath Forms Integration Custom workflows actions Custom inline functions Custom web service integration Deploying Nintex workflows as part of
SharePoint WSP
Extending NW 2007
Demonstration Videos Feature-wise comparison of different edition
s of NW 2007
Product help files and SDK (free account creation required)
Trial Center (Access the “Get Trial” section to download trial version or evaluate the product on hosted site)
Additional Resources
